Sanding Down Guitar Neck

Hey, I was wondering if it would be okay to sand down a guitar neck to; A. get the paint off of it so its smoother, B. make the neck thinner, and C. correct the balance of the guitar (bring the center of gravity closer to the neck joint on an otherwise neck heavy guitar.) I'm not doing this right now, its just an idea, so don't freak out on me if it would be a bad, just tell me.

I'd be using sand paper by hand (which I know will take forever) because I don't want to take too much off the neck and mess it up, and also I think hand sanding would lead to an extremely comfortable neck.

The guitar I want to do it on is a Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top, which I really, really like the look of. I do not own one quit yet, but have played a similar model ( an Epi LP Standard, the only difference being color options and the veneer as far as I know) and I'll be purchasing it in a couple weeks. The guitar sounds good to me, and the playability isn't bad the way it is, but I think sanding the neck would improve it in the ways mentioned earlier.

So good idea, bad idea, okay idea, or any tips or suggestions?

100%

08-10-2010, 06:30 PM

you have to consider the truss rod in the neck though, you need to make sure hitting it or exposing it isn;t going to be a problem

Sparky-MMA

08-10-2010, 06:32 PM

I'd like to know this too

I have an epi les paul standard, i want to make the neck/body joint more comfortable..

would this weaken the neck

sorry for semi hijacking thread :peace:

salgala2000

08-10-2010, 08:02 PM

If you just want to sand it down, you can just get one of those sponge sand things to take the clear coat off. It makes the neck a hell of a lot less sticky...
VID: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxGz6IZ9BFI

Sanding the neck joint (talking about bolt ons) will most likely be a problem.

Sanding the neck a little wouldn't be too bad I guess but you have to be extremely careful not to go too far. Then you would have to paint it if you wanted too.

IRISH_PUNK13

08-11-2010, 12:35 AM

Be careful about sanding the neck down to make it smaller. The only reason I say is because if you go to far you'll fuck the neck.
I just recently sanded down my necks because I like the feel of raw wood more. I just had to sand each neck for about 5-10 minutes.

LifeIsABullet16

08-11-2010, 01:33 AM

i'll give a +1 to sanding it down for the feel, but a -1 for sanding down to make it thinner. i love the feel of a smooth bare wood neck. and more than that i just hate the feel of a sticky painted neck.

but sanding it down so much that you've changed the profile could be dangerous. either by sanding too far in and hitting (or just getting close) to the truss rod, or by unevenly sanding and causing it to warp to either the bass or treble side. there's a chance that nothing will go wrong, but the chance that something will is still there too. if it were a bolt-on i would say go for it, you'd just be set back a new neck if it went wrong. but a set neck is kind of dangerous.